US and Iran escalate military strikes as peace deal collapses

The fragile peace between Washington and Tehran has shattered into a full-scale military escalation. After days of tit-for-tat strikes, the US announced a new round of attacks Wednesday night while Iran’s top negotiator declared his country has complete freedom to respond to what Tehran views as American aggression.

The latest volley saw explosions reported across Iranian territory in Bandar Abbas, Chabahar, and Ahvaz. These strikes follow earlier attacks on Tuesday that targeted military installations near the Strait of Hormuz and the Greater Tunb island. Iran’s military reported that one assault killed seven troops from the 388th Brigade stationed in Bampour, prompting swift pledges of retaliation.

The Death of Diplomacy

What’s remarkable here is how quickly the situation deteriorated from a June 17 peace agreement to open warfare. Iran’s Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei made it clear: the memorandum of understanding is dead. His statement was blunt: “Our commitments remain in effect only as long as the other side fulfils its pledges.”

With the US reimposing a blockade on Iranian ports and redirecting commercial vessels, Tehran decided the deal was already broken. Why continue honoring an agreement when the other side has moved to economic strangulation? The logic is hard to argue with, even if the consequences are terrifying.

Iran’s negotiator Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf framed this as an existential struggle. The country faces what he called an “essential and existential war with America,” leaving officials convinced they have nothing left to negotiate. Yet even as Iran’s military strikes the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and logistics hubs in Kuwait, there’s a curious thread of restraint in official statements.

Regional Allies Growing Impatient

The real problem? Gulf states are losing patience. Zeidon Alkinani, founding director of the Arab Perspectives Institute, warned that nations like Kuwait and Jordan, which have opposed the US-Israel position on Iran, are reaching their breaking point after absorbing Iranian missile attacks.

Kuwait says it downed at least four cruise missiles and 21 drones. Jordan reports downing three more missiles. This isn’t abstract warfare anymore. It’s affecting regional powers who’ve tried to stay neutral. The GCC Secretary-General condemned Iran’s strikes as “treacherous,” signaling that whatever sympathy existed for Tehran’s position is rapidly evaporating.

What makes this particularly volatile is the lack of clear off-ramps. Trump threatened to intensify attacks and even destroy Iran’s power plants and bridges, yet refused to set a deadline when pressed Wednesday. His message was essentially: shape up or face more pain, but we’ll decide when we’ve had enough.

The Diplomatic Puzzle

There’s still a theoretical path back to the table. News reports from Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Tehran suggest Iran might engage diplomatically if the Americans recommit to the memorandum’s terms. Ghalibaf himself acknowledged that Iran hasn’t abandoned diplomacy entirely, insisting his country balances military action with negotiation.

But intentions don’t matter much when cruise missiles are flying. The psychological moment has passed. Trust, already fragile, has been replaced by tit-for-tat calculations of military capability. Each side believes the other struck first, each believes their response was proportional, and each is preparing for the next round.

The real casualty here isn’t military hardware or even the lives lost, tragic as those are. It’s the entire framework that made peace possible. Once a nation declares an “existential war,” once blockades are reimposed, once missiles cross international borders, the diplomatic language becomes performance art.

Gulf states watched this collapse with alarm. They’ve invested in dialogue precisely because the alternative is regional chaos. Yet here we are, with Iran launching strikes on three neighboring countries and the US doubling down on military pressure. When does low-intensity conflict become something far worse?

Al Jazeera